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The following is a guide to dealing with review sites. When I say review sites, I mean those that function as a review site should, with proper consideration to honesty and accuracy. This piece is written largely from the perspective of how we work here at RabbitsReviews, but most of what we do is pretty standard when it comes to review sites.

Why Get Reviewed?
There's something about reading a good, balanced review that people trust and are willing to take action on. I've dined at more restaurants over the years due to some critics recommendation in a newspaper or magazine, gone to movies or stayed away based on how many rotten tomatoes they've received and I buy electronics only after scouring the Net for multiple review sources. I'm not the only one. Many people turn to reviews instead of jumping in blind and you can only gain access to this traffic by being listed.

Another good reason to get reviewed is to get an experienced opinion on your site. It's easy to get too close to a project. Reviewers generally have a depth of experience and enough distance from a site to give it an honest and balanced assessment. Use that to your advantage and improve on your site where you can.

Finally, scores matter less when it comes to a review than the review itself. You should submit even if you think you won’t do well. The scoring impacts how much traffic you get but has very little affect on whether or not people will buy. Case in point, Giant Gay Cocks is one of our lowest scoring sites. They scored a 43 but we've sent 13 sales in the past year. If you believe in your product and have something to offer, your score won't matter as much as us being able to convince surfers that they won't get ripped off.

So those are a few great reasons to get reviewed. Let's go a little deeper.

Our Responsibility
We are here to record what the industry is doing and to be a voice for the consumer. We have two main responsibilities that we take very seriously. First, anyone looking to protect the long-term viability of their business needs to put the customer first. To do that we need to be honest. And secondly, for our business partners, we have a duty to accurately represent the sites we review. Thankfully, we have mechanisms in place that help ensure these responsibilities are met.

The History
RabbitsReviews was launched in 2003. At that time, there were a handful of others already online, such as AdultReviews, which launched in 2001, and TheBestPorn, which may have beaten us to the gate by a few months. Both had been working in the industry for some time and were able to stake an early and lasting claim, but there was still room for growth and competition. Since then, there are many more review sites in the game. Take a look at this list to see for yourself. RabbitsReviews has been able to slowly gain more search engine traction and (at last count) has become the most visited porn review site online. We've seen the inside of over 9,000 paysites and dealt with over 2,000 sponsors. (Try switching epass account payments with that many to sort through. With seven years of experience under our belt, here's our look at what we do and what we think you should know to get the most out of submitting to us, or any other review site out there.

The Submission Process
Submitting to RabbitsReviews starts off a process that can take anywhere from a few business days to six weeks. This is pretty standard for review sites. We offer rush review service for webmasters who are in a hurry to get their review online and that takes three to five business days. Some other sites also offer ways to get listed faster. At Rabbits, we require something additional in order to put these cases to the front of the queue, but most sites are patient enough to wait the usual three to six weeks it takes for a review to be published. The length of time depends on how busy we are, but if you're at all concerned, make sure to contact the site you're submitting to for a general idea of how long it will take and what you can do to get your review online quickly, if need be.

The submission process at most sites is pretty standard. You can check out the submit forms for RabbitsReviews, TheBestPorn and AdultReviews while WebmasterScore allows you to submit to multiple review sites at the same time. It is usually helpful to add someone to ICQ from the site you're submitting to. That way if there are issues or questions, you can get them resolved quickly.

Here are some of the finer points:

User Names and Passwords:We require a one month pass to your site(s) but it's better to give us at least two months to avoid problems. That's about as long as it takes for a new review to come in, get approved, get reviewed, have the graphics done, have it edited and then put in queue to be posted. If you set access for any less time, or enter a login that's bad from the start, it slows down the process by us having to come back and contact you for another one and can often lead to us abandoning the review. Give us 30+ days. We've been doing this for a long time, and so have the other leading review sites, so there's very little chance of abuse. To this end, don't give us a login like rabbits/reviews. We've had a handful of webmasters complain that they've had to cut off our accounts due to large number s of people logging in and downloading content. We've been around for long enough and any password sharing site will have obvious logins like that on their favorites list. In other words, be smart.

Recips:Not all review sites require a link back, but most ask for one. It's part of our business model at Rabbits, though. If you have a program, we are willing to work with you to find a place to put it, but we don't take any new submissions without one. It's just not fair to everyone else. If you run a site without a program, we can still list you, but we are very particular about that link back.

Site Info:We ask for additional information about download limits, trials and exclusive content. It helps speed up the process and if you can't provide an answer, and we can't figure it out for ourselves, we'll err on the side of caution.

Additional Info: If you think there are some finer points to your site that you want considered, make sure to let the site know when you submit. For example, if your site features content that you think has never been shot before, let them know. Or if you have a ton of movies but you've put half of them in a different area that could be overlooked, make sure to say it. The chances of getting the review you'd like go up when you take the extra step. It's worth it.

Our Review Process
Every site is different, but here's our workflow:

1. New submissions are checked, approved and then assigned to a reviewer
2. A reviewer will take anywhere from three days to two weeks to start the review, depending on the work in their queue. They have about 90 minutes to scour a site, write the review, tally the score and then it's passed off to graphics.
3. Graphics may take a few days before screen shots are complete and FHGs built. They pass that off to editing.
4. Editing will put the finishing touches on in three to five business days to finally go over the review one last time and then release it for publication.

Our reviews are largely a hands-off process. There are guidelines to ensure our standards for copy and SEO are adhered to, but once in, the reviewer has full control of the review and scoring for any given site.

After Publication
So you've submitted your site, been reviewed and it has been published online. Now what?

The first thing you should do is read it over. Make sure the facts are correct. If they aren't, or if they've left something out you think should be included, contact the site. Outline the points you'd like to make and let them respond. It's in everyone's best interest to have the facts straight. And if there are errors, always give the site the benefit of the doubt. People make honest mistakes and you get much more from people when you approach with a smile rather than just railing on them. Trust me.

Having said that, the job of a review site is to give both facts and opinions. You may not agree with their opinions, but you need to accept this as a possible drawback. Whatever comes from your review, you have much more to gain than to lose, no matter how the review comes out. As mentioned at the start, we send sales to just about every site we list--even those at the bottom of the pile. You may not like your review. You may not like your score. What matters, though, is what the users think. If all the facts are straight, they are able to make educated decisions on their own--and they do, time and time again.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it's usually better to get reviewed than to wait for a big change in your site that may be a couple months down the road. Sure, it can probably make a difference in your score, but you're missing out on sales in the meantime. Nine times out of ten webmasters underestimate how long it's going to take for that update that's "just around the bend" to actually be completed. Just submit and get the process started.

Also keep in mind that a review is not the end of things. It's just the beginning. Review sites will update your reviews as time and aspects change. At Rabbits, we are happy to update a review after six months or if there have been major changes to your site. Ask if there is a minimum wait for updates at the other review sites you're submitting to. A smart webmaster will leave a reminder in their calendar to hit us up when six months passes as you always get a boost of traffic when you get updated, not to mention (usually) a higher score. If you're not happy with the review and any answer you got after writing to discuss it, keep a cool head, sit back and relax, and figure out how to turn negatives into positives a few months down the line.

Conclusion
Get reviewed. Seriously. I've been on both sides, as an affiliate rep and on the review side, and I've seen the money even a bad review can bring in over time. Reviews can be a great source of traffic, traffic you wouldn't have access to otherwise. Use whatever cash from sales that comes in to better your site and improve your review going forward. If you have problems, just communicate with the sites. Most problems can be resolved immediately and many more get solved over time. Review sites are long-term business partners so work on that relationship and you'll maximize your return with what are often some of the best partners you can find online today.

Special thanks to Vegas Ken from TheBestPorn and Stewart from WebmasterScore for their input!

1) How much does it cost to be in your top 5 list? I notice a trend of one program owning all 5 spots in some occasions with sites that are not that good.

2) Do you penalize sites for not allowing downloads? If so, why?

3) Can you resubmit your site for an updated review after you have made changes to better it? What is protocol for this?

Thanks for the questions.

1) To be brutally honest, you can't buy spots... at least not with us or with any of the sites that this piece covers. The top sites float. It's that simple. They have the most content, the most updates, the most bonuses for members. They are generally larger programs and have the most sales from tons of different affiliates and tend to pay the most. That's more to do with their bankroll and success than actually paying more for better reviews. You can't come in with 100 scenes (in most categories) and get a top spot no matter how much money you have behind you.

2) We give points, not take them away. Those with downloads get extra points. It's about how you look at the glass. I say half full. Why do we do it? As surfers, we think there's value in being able to download and watch the porn we've paid to watch. We allocate five points for that. It's not a lot but it's a tip of the hat to those who do. That's from a surfers perspective and that's who we write for. Ask me from a business standpoint whether or not there should be downloads, I may have a different answer...

3) All sites are different. At Rabbits, we ask webmasters to wait six months because sites don't usually change a lot in that time. If there has been a major chance, I usually ask that a webmaster submit all the changes. If there's going to be a significant change in score (more than a few points) or if a surfer would really have a hard time recognizing the site after arriving from our review, we'd update early. I was chatting with Stewart at WebmasterScore/TheTongue, though, and he said he's not as strict as we are. It just depends on the site. For us, with 6,500 reviews online, if we asked for anything less, we'd do nothing but update sites.

2) We give points, not take them away. Those with downloads get extra points.

Thanks for the reply.

Below is why I thought you penalized and actually took away points. I grouped together DRM and Streaming only. If your policy has changed, please update your criteria page.

Quote:

Originally Posted by http://www.rabbitsreviews.com/criteria.aspx

Downloadable Videos (5 points)
Most sites either will earn full points for including downloadable clips within their main content or will get no points if they only offer streaming videos. In cases where sites use DRM, they will be penalized in Other score criteria.

I'd say we give points in all categories but the "other" score is is beast of its own making. Sometimes points are given, other times taken away, based on an overall look at the category. The reviewers control that area on Rabbits.

With very few exceptions, all the review sites have the same sites from the same programs in their top picks. They are there because they are the most popular among consumers, convert the best, retain the best, and therefore pay the most to their affiliates. A review site pimping a tube or streaming only site is nothing more than a shill site.

Do you penalize for sites not having zips? What about downloads? What other differences do you have compared to us? Recips aren't mandatory, right?

I think site owners are MUCH too focused on the score box of a review. I understand why, because I own my own network of paysites as well. When you work on something as hard as a good network owner does, it sucks to see someone grade you with a 79 instead of a 99 and some people get very emotionally attached to their sites. However, as Im sure you already know... review site users actually READ the reviews. When I get feedback from bookmarkers its questions about a site, or comments about how a review missed something they want to see added now that they joined a site and found something out. Very few review readers will join or not join based on scores alone.

As to zips and downloads vs streaming only etc, those things tend to have a very small effect on scores when I review a site UNLESS the tour is dishonest about what is provided. If a tour says 'download now' and the members area is streaming only, the site will get skewered for having a dishonest tour. If the tour says 'watch videos online' or something similar and doesn't allow downloads that's much less of a big deal. The key more than anything else is that the tour accurately and honestly depict what the user can expect to see and do when they sign up. If a tour shows 80 different models and the site has 12 scenes in it, that's just as bad and gets treated the same way when I write reviews.

These days there are literally thousands of sites and in the major niches the competition is fierce. If one site has 150 exclusive videos in 1920x1080 downloadable and another has 150 videos streaming only in 640x480 it would be silly to expect the streaming only site to score as well or better than the downloadable one. However, a streaming only site that offers plenty of good content with an honest tour can still score very well and in most cases the reader is not picking the site they will join based on the scores. They may read that one site offers interactive model chat and the other doesn't or that one includes a network of interesting sites and the other doesn't. Site owners would be much better off focusing on finding good ways to differentiate their site from others in the niche, or to come up with a new creative niche, than they are if they focus too much on having two more points or less points because they don't have .zips and someone else does.

The guy who wants zips wont join a site without them, not because it got 2 less points or 10 less points or whatever, but because he wants zips and that site isn't offering them. Same with downloads or any other aspect of the paysite experience. It really is that simple.

I think site owners are MUCH too focused on the score box of a review.

I get why webmasters are really focused on the number... but you're right. It matters much less than they think it does.

If I'm submitting a site to you, are there any things that you look for that I didn't outline here? Is there a better way to ensure the process runs smoother? I mention going to 60 days with logins. Would you ever need that much time?

[B]
We've seen the inside of over 9,000 paysites and dealt with over 2,000 sponsors. (Try switching epass account payments with that many to sort through.

Ouch, we have felt the same. Not 2000 though.
Epass was good for gathering payouts and send the money home in bigger amounts.

What have you done now? Checks are very labor demanding for us - and expensive. We have chosen wire transfers from big sponsors with high minimums. And waiting for the smaller ones to support Paypal, CashX or Paxum.

Doug, This guide is good, and the described procedure are very similar to what we do at Adult Reviews and Porn Reviews.

To site owners, submit your site for review - it's free traffic and free consulting on what you can do to improve your site - which might end up helping you keeping your members longer.

A recip link to us is also mandatory if it's an incomming review request.
If we contact a site because we would like to review it' it's not the best thing to say after we have received a login: "And btw, you also have to link to us before we will review your site."

How long does a review of a site take? This is important when doing a review. Comparing what a film or food critic does with what 90% or more of pornsite reviewers do is comparing apples with baked beans.

A film or food critic eats the whole meal or watches the whole film. Unless it sucks and they walk out. A porn site reviewer reviews and gives marks on the menu, layout of the site, number of films/sets, DL speed and zipped content and little else. So reviewing a 30 day membership in anything less than a couple of hours is worthless. IMO

He has to sit and watch 4-5 movies and the same number of sets. The customer will be watching a whole lot more. He needs to know what makes the niche he's reviewing works. He needs to know what is good content and what is bad. It's far more important than the number of images or length of a video. He needs to look at the content and ascertain how much of it is all the same. 50 set and 50 videos all the same get very boring after 30 days. As does 500 of both.

We sell a product for a months consumption. We need customers to retain or/and upsell to other sites we own. AND we want to keep buyers buying. The strength of what we sell has never been more important.

As someone who has been running a small niche review site for a long time (slightly longer than Doug I believe ;-) ) I think this is a great post and entirely true. I particularly like the point about how being honest is essential to the process, I've always thought that but struggled with some people who just can't understand it.

And further to that I'd like to stress that although affiliate programs are how we pay the bills that doesn't mean reviews are purely for the purpose of sending traffic to programs. I happily review sites with no affiliate programs at all under entirely the same criteria as those with programs. The goal is to build a site with great information for the consumer and you can't do that if you don't list all major choices, regardless of *their* business model (more and more in my niche are traffic building entirely through social without any aff program).

On the other hand I've had site owners amazed at the fact that I joined their aff program, I required them to link to me (because they asked for a review, otherwise I don't require it) - yet I still gave them a "bad review"! Well sorry, but I can't give a dishonest review which will damage my credibility. And besides, I concur with Doug that even bad reviews make sales (surfers are weird huh). The most I will do is if a review is going to be absolutely terrible is I'll suggest to the webmaster that I not post it and instead they get back to me in six months to see if things are better.

As for epassporte accounts - yikes! You're not kidding that's a problem. A few years ago I was drowning in checks, luckily CitiBank here was waving the fees for overseas checks but just the fiddling paperwork of recording and cashing them was getting out of control. Epassporte saved me there and I'm sad to see it go (though I do hope to get the few $K I have in vv back at some point!)

The cam business has consolidated enormously in the last few years though so if I go back to checks it'll be a smaller number, but I'm sticking with wire for the biggest sponsors.

Nice post, agreed! And also, and this is coming from a review writer...

MAKE YOUR PORN SITE GOOD! If you have a terrible website with 320x240 real media files chopped up into 1 minute slices I'm going to tell people to steer clear. So many sites out there haven't upgraded since 1995 and it shows.

Good post Doug. I don't usually wade too deep into these threads but this one has some good discussions.

We launched in late 2001 and at the time there was only Adult Reviews, Janes Guide and X3Guide (which has now bitten the bucket), making us one of the first review sites online. At least that I can remember! My model was simple. Do everything exactly opposite of what everyone else was doing. I knew there were enough good sites out there that I didn't need to lie and say every one of them was "the biggest" or "the best". At the time there was very little information about what lay beyond the free tour for each site.

I took a bus to Mexico City from Toronto Canada because I couldn't afford a plane ticket, and brought a notebook with me. Was going to see my girlfriend. I wrote out all my ideas and planned what would become Adult Site Surfer on the bus there. I had a solid 3.5 days to think about it! I wish I knew to register "pornreviews.com" instead heh.. ;) I was happy with the ASS branding at the time.

When I got home my business partner at the time and I started hammering out the site, and the rest is history.

I will also write reviews of sites with no affiliate program, as I think it's important to not only think about the money when trying to run an impartial review site. In the past, it was a solid strategy too, because there's a lot less competition for those terms.

Another interesting thing to note is that when we got started, nobody had written these paysite owners before asking for a password to write a review. Many would say no, especially the sites trying to hide something. So we used uhm, any means necessary... to get inside and write out reviews whether we had approval or not. The way I saw it, I was either A> doing a service to our readers or B> doing a service to the paysite owner. Who else broke in to make them money?

Anyways thanks for the writeup Doug, I only wish I'd been as aggressive as that pedal bike riding Mantis was. Hats off.

So reviewing a 30 day membership in anything less than a couple of hours is worthless. IMO

I disagree. Once you get a taste for networks (there's about 30~40 that come up regularly) you can pretty much nail a fresh review without even visiting the site. For instance - I can tell you the update schedule, the video lengths, resolutions and bitrates, image sizes, accessibility (ZIP/DRM) options, archive size, content type, bonus sites, navigation options and much, much more about a number of sites that are considered 'the best' (We Live Together, Bang Bus, In The Crack, etc.).

The difference between a movie critic and porn site reviewer is simple - a porn site reviewer pretty much has to sell you the site. Sure, there are some cases where you just can't recommend a join, but more often than not, you're only going to mention the good elements of a site and avoid talking about anything negative. Some shit just doesn't get mentioned in the word count either, I mean seriously - what sort of a surfer wants to know what processors he can join through?

Video resolutions, update schedules, content quality, bonus sites and archive sizes are pretty much the meat of any review. Some projects I've worked on require 10 reviews written per day - do you really think it's possible for me to sit down for 16+ hours and look at porn objectively?

Adult reviews are there for a reader to skim over and assure himself that joining a porn site is okay. The actual meat and guts of the site don't matter to most porn surfers, as they'll take one look at the tour and decide there and then if they like the look of it. Sure, some want to know if ZIP files are inside or if the videos are 720p, but more often than not, you're going to find that a good porn review uses informal, first person language and assures the reader that the site he's reading a review for is worth the 30 bucks.

I disagree. Once you get a taste for networks (there's about 30~40 that come up regularly) you can pretty much nail a fresh review without even visiting the site. For instance - I can tell you the update schedule, the video lengths, resolutions and bitrates, image sizes, accessibility (ZIP/DRM) options, archive size, content type, bonus sites, navigation options and much, much more about a number of sites that are considered 'the best' (We Live Together, Bang Bus, In The Crack, etc.).

The difference between a movie critic and porn site reviewer is simple - a porn site reviewer pretty much has to sell you the site. Sure, there are some cases where you just can't recommend a join, but more often than not, you're only going to mention the good elements of a site and avoid talking about anything negative. Some shit just doesn't get mentioned in the word count either, I mean seriously - what sort of a surfer wants to know what processors he can join through?

Video resolutions, update schedules, content quality, bonus sites and archive sizes are pretty much the meat of any review. Some projects I've worked on require 10 reviews written per day - do you really think it's possible for me to sit down for 16+ hours and look at porn objectively?

Adult reviews are there for a reader to skim over and assure himself that joining a porn site is okay. The actual meat and guts of the site don't matter to most porn surfers, as they'll take one look at the tour and decide there and then if they like the look of it. Sure, some want to know if ZIP files are inside or if the videos are 720p, but more often than not, you're going to find that a good porn review uses informal, first person language and assures the reader that the site he's reading a review for is worth the 30 bucks.

And this is why review sites traffic and conversions have dropped over the last few years.

The customer expects the review site to give him a much better review than Video resolutions, update schedules, content quality, bonus sites and archive sizes. He wants to know if the porn will get his dick hard and satisfy him.

That's what he's spending $30 on. And he doesn't care if you don't have the time.

And this is why review sites traffic and conversions have dropped over the last few years.

The customer expects the review site to give him a much better review than Video resolutions, update schedules, content quality, bonus sites and archive sizes. He wants to know if the porn will get his dick hard and satisfy him.

That's what he's spending $30 on. And he doesn't care if you don't have the time.

Luckily, you have those magic join links, so you really have no need for a review site anyway.

I think this tutorial is for those that have to do it the old fashioned way.

We mention it but don't take points away. Our focus these days is on vids.

Some people enjoy video and some enjoy photography and some enjoy text. I know, in my niche, I've seen review sites give high scores to dead sites with like 20 updates ever, while dinging photography sites which update daily. And I never see text even mentioned in scoring and only occasionally in the review itself.

It seems like reviewing a photo site based on video content is a lot like reviewing a BBW site based on how slender the talent is.

And this is why review sites traffic and conversions have dropped over the last few years.

The customer expects the review site to give him a much better review than Video resolutions, update schedules, content quality, bonus sites and archive sizes. He wants to know if the porn will get his dick hard and satisfy him.

That's what he's spending $30 on. And he doesn't care if you don't have the time.

Some people enjoy video and some enjoy photography and some enjoy text. I know, in my niche, I've seen review sites give high scores to dead sites with like 20 updates ever, while dinging photography sites which update daily. And I never see text even mentioned in scoring and only occasionally in the review itself.

It seems like reviewing a photo site based on video content is a lot like reviewing a BBW site based on how slender the talent is.

Is there anything a frustrated webmaster can do to address this?

You're right Amelia. Myself I try to evaluate a site based on what I think a customer whose into that fetish would enjoy. I don't like 600lb women, but it doesn't mean I can't try to get into the head of someone who does.

As for text, if a website goes out of their way to provide long descriptions, I do try to mention that in my review. I know some customers enjoy that.

Adult Site Surfer is restrained by an antiquated system too, and any changes I make would only be future proof, and not affect the past, which sucks! It's just so big that it's hard to make a dent no matter what I do it seems.

So, I've made a new site that I've been working hard on to address some of those issues and start on a clean slate. Have a look, I'd love to get your stuff listed. http://www.pornreviewsplus.com

Also as for scoring, I've done away with including anything in the score, and just go by feel now. Nearly 10 years doing this, I sort of just have a sense of where things belong. Rather than trying to get a perfect system that adds this and that by weights etc, I just have an estimated score (based on my past experiences with a site, and what other review sites I respect have had to say on the matter) and a full overall score. Adult Site Surfer is a lot about ranking, which turns into a bit of a mess over time, as reviews get outdated etc. This new site is less about your score, and more about the facts and my point form thoughts as I browse through the members area.

Can I ask for your review site URL please? I run a modest little niche fetish site... I would be interested in getting a review

Sorry my site only does one niche; webcam. If have any cams (even once a week shows for members) then I can give you a mention. Feeds don't count though. You can find me via the link in my sig if you dig around a bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by baddog

I used to do that, for a long time. Burned me out on porn.

Burn out on porn; you're not kidding. I've been doing some house renovation lately (totally killing me, already had to fire the first set of builders) and now if I have to look at a porn video I don't even notice if the girl is being DP'd upside down or whatever... all I'm thinking is things like "hey, that's an interesting staircase behind her, get your ass out of the way so I can see how the handrail connects to the treads."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Socks

Also as for scoring, I've done away with including anything in the score, and just go by feel now.

I never liked scores - if you want to know what I think of a site you have to read the review; I cannot summarize it in two digits!

Anyone want to write some new reviews for me, you can use your affil code

That's a cute idea. How about this -- I'll write you reviews for cam sites which you haven't covered and you can use *your* affil code but I put in some links into the reviews pointing to my corresponding reviews ("see this other review of xyz..."). Real links of course, not "out.php".

Burn out on porn; you're not kidding. I've been doing some house renovation lately (totally killing me, already had to fire the first set of builders) and now if I have to look at a porn video I don't even notice if the girl is being DP'd upside down or whatever... all I'm thinking is things like "hey, that's an interesting staircase behind her, get your ass out of the way so I can see how the handrail connects to the treads."

I knew there was a problem when I started going to shoots and noticed shadowing instead of the people fucking.